I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to skiing apparatus and, more particularly, to an acceleration compensated device which releasably binds a skier's boot to his ski and functions to cancel out the forces generated by the boot mass during acceleration of the same. The term acceleration is often referred to as "shock" by those skilled in the art of releasable ski bindings -- the ability of a ski binding to not release permaturely because of shock is referred to as its "anti-shock capability."
II. Description of the Prior Art
Much effort has been expended on the problem of safely securing a skier's boot to his ski with sufficient force to enable the skier to adequately control his skis while at the same time allowing the skier's boot to be released from the ski should the forces acting on his boot become great enough to injure him. The releasable ski binding which holds the skier's boot to the ski must allow for release of the skier's boot in the horizontal plane, including moments which tend to twist the skier's boot, and in a vertical plane when forces tend to lift the skier's boot. The importance of ski bindings has become more important as developments in ski boot construction, such as molded plastic inserts, have provided even more rigid positioning of the skier's foot within the ski boot and thereby tend to increase the danger of serious injury if the boot is not properly released from the ski. Present-day ski bindings include a resistance element, such as a spring, which determines the force required before the skier's boot will be released from the binding. This requirement must be met if the safety ski binding is to accomplish its objective of protecting the skier from typical skiing injuries. Thus, any shocks having an energy level in excess of the predetermined shock work absorption capacity of the ski binding holding device will automatically result in a release of the ski boot, whether or not significant leg forces are present.
It should be realized that in practice most shocks are encountered while skiing on rough snow, chatter bumps, moguls and the like. The two significant types of forces acting on the ski bindings (the external forces imposed by the skier's legs and the internal forces generated by the acceleration of the boot mass) are additive; and in order to prevent the inadvertent release of the bindings, most bindings must be set to accommodate both forces simultaneously. Thus, in a typical retaining device the release force and resulting moment must be set so high that they are sufficient to fracture a leg when a non-violent fall occurs since the acceleration forces do not develop. It would therefore be desirable to provide a ski boot retaining device which functions to cancel the forces generated by the boot mass during acceleration and release only as a result of the external forces from the skier's legs.
Applicant is aware of the following Letters Patents which are relevant to applicant's invention: U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,322; No. 2,846,232; No. 3,528,672; No. 3,430,971; and No. 3,348,855. These patents relate broadly to the concept of ski bindings and devices which releasably bind a skier's boot to his ski; but, in the opinion of applicant, these patents do not disclose nor in any manner suggest applicant's invention.
III. Prior Art Statement
In the opinion of the applicant, the aforementioned United States Letters Patents represent the closest prior art of which applicant is aware.